250 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1901. 



pottery. Mr. James Mooney, of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 

 published the following statement relating- to these finds: 



On Sunday, February 12, in company with Mr. Keam, I rode over to the spot where 

 the discovery had been made. It is in a rincon, or side canyon, walled in by steep 

 cliffs perhaps 150 feet in height. Toward the south the canyon opens out into an 

 extensive valley occupied by several families of Navajos with their herds of sheep 

 and goats. At the north end of the canyon several springs ooze up through the 

 rocks and sand drifts, and it was in excavating one of these that the discovery was 

 made. Several springs have now been dug out, but pottery has been found only at 

 one. On climbing the steep ascent to the top of the mesa we find the remains of the 

 ancient pueblo overlooking the valley on the east. It must have been an extensive 

 settlement in its day, as large as any of the existing Hopi villages, as the ruins cover 

 an area of perhaps 4 acres, and the whole neighborhood is strewn with fragments of 

 stamped [coiled] and painted pottery and flakes of flint and obsidian. The founda- 

 tions of the walls are still well preserved, so that the outlines of the room can be 

 distinctly traced, and by digging out the accumulated sand and debris it is probable 

 that nearly the whole ground-plan might be restored. At the foot of the cliff, 

 toward the south, traces of burnt clay and charcoal show where the pottery was 

 made, and the steps cut into the rock by which the ancient inhabitants descended 

 to the spring are still plainly visible. 



Several of the Indians were at work digging while we were there. They had 

 excavated the principal spring, where the pottery had been found, down to bed clay, 

 and had thrown the loosened sand out at the top. The instruments used were their 

 hands and two long-handled shovels. The ground all around was strewn with frag- 

 ments of pottery thrown out, and numerous other fragments were embedded in the 

 sand. It was evident that probably half the original number, including the largest 

 specimens, had been destroyed in the digging process. By working in from the side, 

 instead of from above, and proceeding carefully to remove the sand with the hands 

 and some such small tool as a knife or a stick, probably three hundred or more pieces 

 might have been taken out intact. Most of those preserved were small, finely dec- 

 orated with designs in black and reddish brown, and of most unique shapes. . . . 



. . . According to the statement given to Mr. Keam by the Hopi, who have 

 occupied this region from time immemorial, the ruined pueblo, which they call 

 Kawafka, was formerly occupied by the Indians now in Laguna pueblo, west of the 

 Rio Grande. They state also that their ancestors used to deposit jars and bowls 

 near springs as votive offerings to the water gods. This would account for the fact 

 that the vessels were all found close together at the principal spring, and appear from 

 their size and shape to have been intended for religious rather than "practical pur- 

 poses. The custom of making offerings at springs to the water deities is common to 

 all primitive tribes, and among the Arapahos and Cheyennes I have myself seen 

 shawls and strips of calico hungup as sacrifices upon the bushes about every little 

 watering place in the vicinity of a regular camp.« 



Recent correspondence with Mr. A. K. Graham, of Ferro, New 

 Mexico, has brought to nty attention the discovery of an offering 

 spring at Hudson, New Mexico, and the following interesting para- 

 graphs are quoted from his letter of January 18, 1902: 



The Hudson hot spring (now called Fay wood) is situated at the foot of a mesa 4 

 miles west of the Rio Mimbres, 25 miles due east of Silver City, this county, and 

 about the same distance from Deming, New Mexico. It is directly on the old Cali- 

 fornia highway, called the Santa Fe trail, and was used for many years prior to the 



"James Mooney, American Anthropologist, VI, 1893, pp. 283-284. 



